Hanoi Streets

Tran Quang Khai Street runs along the Red River connecting Tran Nhat Duat Street at the T-junction of Hang Mam to Tran Khanh Du street at the end of Trang Tien Street (near the Museum of History of Vietnam). This used to be the area of the three hamlets- Trung Thanh, Trung Ha and Trung Liet.

By the middle of 19th century, Trung Liet Hamlet of the Stone Dock shrine was changed into the name of the Old Dock as the Red River changed its course. The Stone Dock was silted so muc that boat could not move around it any more. In a blink, it became the Old Dock.

The Trung Liet shrine also no longer existed. So the hamlet of Trung Liet with Stone Dock Shrine became the Old Dock. The number of 166 where it is a house actually used to be the shrine. Next to it is the number 168 which still has a pagoda named as Phuc Long.

In the French colonisation, this was the Guilemoto dock. Like many other streets, the revolution of the Vietnamese against the French colonizers ended up in changing the names in accordance with the winners’ wish. The road changed into the name of Tran Nhat Duat- a notable mandarin under the dynasty of Tran/

The special thing about the numberin in this road is it starts only with number 158. This is because the admistrators has numbered the houses on the roads of Tran Quang Khai and Tran Nhat Duat street in a continuous sequence. The ending house at the road of Tran Quang Khai is two numbers 154 and 156. So the street of Tran Nhat Duat started with number 158. This may have something with the fact that Tran Nhat Duat and Tran Quang Khai were both princes of the first Emperor of Tran Dynasty. They shared different mothers though. However they were all military geniuses who helped to defeat the Mongolian invaders. They were also notable scholars with famous poems.